


The Visit

by AmeliaPonders



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 22:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9627476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmeliaPonders/pseuds/AmeliaPonders
Summary: The Doctor and Rose are able to cross into Pete's World once every five years for visits with the Tyler clan.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting on my computer forever. It's pretty schmaltzy. But hey, given that lots of people are currently bummed out by the state of the world, I hope it causes a smile or two.
> 
> Many, many thanks to Hanluvr for her very quick beta that she actually did like a month ago and I just never posted. Sorry bout that, dear! I also made a few small edits after she was done, so all mistakes are my own.

Rose ran into the library, her face illuminated by a wide smile. “Doctor!” she exclaimed, skipping over to the plush chair where he was reading. She grabbed his arm, causing him to drop his book, then laid a deep, if quick, kiss on his lips. “It’s today! I can feel it. C’mon, to the console room!”

Before he had a chance to respond, Rose was already out the door. The Doctor chuckled and followed her, picking up his pace a bit at the idea of her driving the TARDIS alone. When the TARDIS bristled at his thought that he was the better driver, he conceded that maybe, just maybe, Rose landed a bit softer than he did sometimes. But they were about to attempt something seriously delicate and dangerous; at the very least, two pilots would be prudent.

Arriving in the console room, the Doctor saw that Rose’s smile hadn’t dimmed one bit as she whirred around the console, though her tongue had poked out and he tried not to let it distract him. If they actually pulled this off today, he was sure she’d be amenable to some _celebrating_ after. “You running the pre-flight sequence, then?” the Doctor asked her in a voice thick with both pride and nervousness.

“Yup! All systems nominal. Temporal stabilizers and dimensional anomaly monitor both working,” she said confidently. She delighted in the fact that she was fluent in some of the technobabble that had only been the Doctor’s domain for so long (and that she could say “dimensional anomaly monitor” without tripping up). Having finished prep, she joined the Doctor by the monitor, looping her arm through his and squeezing.  
“Brilliant. Let’s just see if we can pull this off, shall we?” he asked. She nodded enthusiastically, and the Doctor fervently hoped that he wouldn’t have to disappoint her. “Rose, if it’s not today, just remember…”

“It’s today,” she interrupted him. “Trust me on this,” she finished with a wink.

A few taps and pulls and clicks on various buttons and knobs, and he had their answer. The Doctor gasped. This was unlike anything he’d seen before.

“What is it, Doctor?” Rose asked, noticing his look of bewilderment. “Was I wrong?”

She tried valiantly to hide her disappointment as she asked her last question, but the Doctor saw right through her. He contemplated toying with her for a moment, but realized that she’d probably kill him for joking about this in any way. Besides, he was about to get to see that brilliant smile of hers again, probably even the tongue-touched version, too.  
“You weren’t wrong,” he replied, unable to hide his own glee as she clapped her hands with a delighted squeak. “It’s today. Go get everything ready.” Rose threw her arms around his neck, kissed him hard on the lips, then trotted off down the corridor, leaving him alone in the console room and decidedly woozy. _Minx_.

About an hour later, the TARDIS had landed and both the Doctor and Rose were laden with suitcases. The Doctor knew at this point not to argue with Rose about the luggage, which her mother had gotten her. She’d refused to let the Doctor tinker with them to make them bigger on the inside because “I don’t want them to get torched or have anything blow up in the bleedin’ library again.” He’d agreed not to touch them, mostly because he’d been hard at work calculating quantum gap probability in the Eldigar Six galaxy at the time and wasn’t really listening. (Rose knew when he was distracted with science was the best time, outside of the bedroom anyway, to get him to agree to things he wouldn’t otherwise.)

They tugged the luggage behind them as they exited the TARDIS onto a grassy lawn and were greeted by dead leaves swirling in a chilly autumn zephyr. Though shedding them rapidly, most of the trees surrounding the lawn still held vibrant yellow, red, and orange leaves. They swayed proudly in the wind, looking for all the world like they were aware of their own beauty. Rose wrapped her scarf a bit tighter, but paused for a moment to take a deep sniff of the air and absorb all the season had to offer.

The Doctor grumbled about the cold and the leaves making it more difficult to haul the luggage over the grass. Rose promptly told him to quit his bellyaching and he switched to his trademark pout, which he knew she found adorable. It soon morphed into a fond smile, though, as he watched his wife move along at a rapid pace, forgetting the weight of the luggage in her eagerness to get to their destination. Finally, they arrived on the porch of a stately mansion.

A moment later the door opened, the woman on the other side blinking in surprise before her face blossomed with joy, her smile matching Rose’s equally ecstatic one. “Mum!” Rose exclaimed, practically leaping into Jackie’s arms.

“Oh, Rose! My Rose, it’s so good to see you, darling.” Jackie was crying, as she always did on these visits, and the Doctor knew Rose was, too. Jackie caught the Doctor’s eye and motioned for him to come join the hug. Jackie smacked a wet kiss on his cheek and the Doctor grimaced, though at this point, they both knew it was just for show. They each pulled back and gave the other a warm smile as Rose wiped her tears of joy.

When they all went inside a moment later, Pete was in the foyer and greeted them warmly. Rose’s hug lingered a moment, as if she was trying to make up for all the times she never had a dad to embrace when she was growing up. She noticed his already light hair had gone a bit more greyish-white around the edges and then chanced a closer look at her mother. Jackie was aging gracefully, but there was no denying that there were a few more wrinkles around her eyes. Seeing parents age was always a somewhat disconcerting experience, but for Rose, it was especially jarring due to her very unique circumstances.

A long time ago now, the Doctor had discovered that about every five years, give or take a few months, there was the slightest tear in the wall between dimensions and they could safely slip through to Pete’s World. Unfortunately, it was so tiny and unstable that the Doctor constantly had to monitor the rift to make sure that he and Rose could get back to the prime dimension safely. It was also crucial that the timelines were as close as possible for the tear to open, so, unfortunately, there was no “cheating” time—five years meant five years, on both sides of the rift. Still, it was much better than never seeing the family at all.

The Doctor could land the TARDIS there without crashing, but much like when they first went to this alternate dimension and fought the Cybermen, her power was drained by the trip. Not only that, the TARDIS couldn’t travel properly in Pete’s World. Soaring through time and space saving planets would no longer be an option. Each time the TARDIS powered up again, they’d have to leave the alternate dimension, and that was usually only 48 hours or less, or they’d likely be stuck.

But the rare visits were odd for another reason, too. While Rose’s parents and brother aged as expected, she and the Doctor didn’t. It had been difficult explaining to Jackie how Bad Wolf had changed Rose. She was shocked and sad that Rose had to watch them grow old and die and that she’d lost an important piece of her humanity. But after a while, Jackie got used to the idea, and seeing how good her daughter and the Doctor were for each other, she was happy that their lifespans matched. And, as much as she wished they could stay in Pete’s World forever, she knew that they belonged traveling among the stars in that daft time machine, helping people whenever and wherever they could. Rose had found her calling through her travels with the Doctor, and as much as it hurt to see her so infrequently, Jackie could never ask her daughter to give up the life she’d come to love.

Jackie did her best to push away the melancholy thoughts of how brief this visit might be and shouted for Tony to come downstairs to see his sister and brother-in-law. Though Rose knew how old her brother was now, she was shocked to see the strapping 15-year-old bound down the stairs, ginger hair flopping everywhere. “Blimey, mate, look at you!” she said in awe as he gave her a joyful hug. For the first time, Tony was taller than Rose. In addition, he had the slightest bit of peach fuzz on his face, something she couldn’t help but gently tease him about.

“Shall we all sit down for a cuppa?” Pete asked. A few minutes later, tea in hand, they moved from the kitchen to the living room, Pete and Tony on the large couch, the Doctor and Rose in the adjacent loveseat, and Jackie in a comfy recliner on the other side. Despite the mansion’s size, they’d manage to make it entirely homey. It was a far cry from the rather pretentious stylings of the other Jackie Tyler that used to live here, and the Doctor was grateful that the new, welcoming feel made it easy not to think about the cybermen that invaded this place that night so long ago.

Before they knew it, the sun had set and the first bright stars poked their way through a blanket of dark sky. The family was so used to the fleeting nature of these visits that the first few hours were always a flurry of updates, with plenty of pictures of recent events and lots of laughter. Tony talked about making the school football team and how last year he was the first Year 9 to be named captain in two decades. He blushed and grew quieter when Jackie mentioned the school dances and some girl called Emily. Jackie herself mostly talked about some additional redecorating she’d like to do in the house. She smacked Pete playfully when he rolled his eyes but they still grinned widely at one another. After all this time, it was like they’d just found each other again.  
The Doctor joined right in on the merriment, not caring how domestic it all was. He’d stopped caring long ago, finally accepting that the Tylers were truly his family, too. That they loved him. It had been so long since he had a family that it was practically a brand new feeling, and he reveled in it as much as he could, doing his best to tamp down fear that it would suddenly all vanish (and that it would be his fault).

As Pete told them about some of the work the Vitex Foundation did this year, the Doctor’s heart warmed further seeing the way Rose was so proud of her father. It didn’t matter that technically he was the parallel version and not her actual father; that awkwardness had long since passed and she was just happy to have this man in her life. The Doctor was also chuffed to hear that Pete had taken a couple of his suggestions about causes to support, and grateful for his generosity to those in need in a multiverse that can at times be full of darkness. He was about to say something to that effect when a strange, grizzled bark echoed from the kitchen. Moments later, a clearly elderly Yorkshire terrier (at this point, it was unclear exactly _how_ old the little creature was) ambled into the den. “Rose!” Jackie squealed with delight.

The Doctor didn’t even try to stifle his laugh and Rose (his Rose) called him a prat as Jackie scooped up the little dog and fussed over it, speaking in baby talk and re-arranging the red bow the groomer had put on the pup’s head. “Mum, seriously, you couldn’t have changed her name?” Rose asked, exasperated.

“Oi! How would you like it if someone went and changed your name without your permission? I can’t do that to this poor little creature. Besides, she’s old as leather, there ain’t no way she’s gonna learn a new name. She barely hears as it is.”

Rose rolled her eyes, but couldn’t resist giving the dog an affectionate little pat before striding over to the suitcases in the hallway. “All right, you lot,” she said as she dragged the luggage into the family room, waving off the Doctor’s help. “I know the only reason you’re happy to see us is because of the prezzies, so here we go,” she teased.

Rose and the Doctor joyfully distributed the many trinkets and gadgets they’d picked up for the family throughout their travels, including self-cleaning football shoes for Tony, complete with Corifelian technology that maximizes comfort and minimizes injury; clothes for Jackie made out of a variety of decadent fabrics unavailable on Earth; and, for Pete, a thing that looked like a robotic bumble bee, used by the best tennis players in the Ysoli Three galaxy to improve their speed and accuracy. Even Rose-the-Dog got a decadent “bone” that was really a genetically engineered treat optimized for canine nutrition and flavored like beef. (Rose-the-human realized, perhaps a bit belatedly at this point, that their extraterrestrial treats were probably what made Rose-the-Dog live so long.) The dog promptly snatched the treat from the Doctor’s outstretched hand, then trotted away haughtily despite the treat sticking out of her mouth like a cigar.

Jackie had some gifts for the Doctor and Rose stashed away as well, though they weren’t a surprise. Every visit, she presented them with a beautiful photo album covering the time they’d missed. It always brought Rose to tears, and whenever the Doctor found her alone in the library with a stack of them, usually after a rough adventure, he wished he could’ve found a way to let her be part of those family memories rather than just look at them. Recalling this now, the events of this morning surged back into his mind.

“Right,” the Doctor said hurriedly, “I’ve got to go check something on the TARDIS. I’ll be back in a jiff. Tony, you’re in charge,” he said with a wink, and then, before Rose could so much as ask him what was going on, he slipped out the front door.

Moments later, the TARDIS greeted him with a welcome hum, but the Doctor knew she could sense his tension. He was in no-nonsense Time Lord mode, and more than anything, he needed his ship to give him the answers he sought. He needed her to make this happen for Rose and her family. _Our family_ , he reminded himself.

The Doctor furiously typed into the console’s keyboard and looked at the constellation of Circular Gallifreyan characters that filled the screen in front of him. “Please be right, please be right,” he murmured to himself as he analyzed the readings. As soon as he confirmed that they were in fact correct, tears sprung unbidden to the Doctor’s eyes. This shouldn’t be able to happen, but there it was in front of him.

“What got you runnin’ off?”

The Doctor snapped out of his reverie at Rose’s voice. She quickly noticed the shine in his eyes and her face fell as she scurried over to him. “Doctor? What’s wrong?”

He sniffled, then wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong, love. In fact, look!” He eagerly turned the console’s monitor towards her. Rose rolled her eyes when she saw nothing but Gallifreyan and what looked like complex mathematics.

“Can’t read it, Doctor. What did you say about my Gallifreyan the other day? Oh, that’s right, ‘Congratulations, Rose! You’re at the level of either a very smart toddler or a very dimwitted primary school student. Molto bene!’”

“I was complimenting you!” her husband replied, indignant. “And your impression of me could use a bit of work, by the way.” Rose stuck her tongue out playfully at the Doctor, but then indicated the screen again.

“So, what’s it say? What’s got you all misty and giddy at the same time?”

The Doctor pointed to the screen. “This is the time-space coordinate of the tear we pushed through to come into Pete’s World today,” he said, indicating a splotch that seemed to radiate small tendrils of light that danced around a pure, circular center. “That spot should be moving, changing. Irregular. Instead, it’s a perfect circle and...it’s stable.” He said the last bit with an air of reverence and looked his wife right in the eye, hoping she’d understand its significance.

“So that means we can…” Rose’s whole face lit up with hope, and the Doctor was overjoyed that it was one of those times where he could actually give her the news she wanted.

“Yes. It’s a stable portal now. Torchwood will have to monitor it closely to ensure nothing gets through that shouldn’t, but we can use the TARDIS to go back and forth whenever we want. She still can’t stay in Pete’s World for too long in one go, but she’ll be able to stand at least a week or so. Then she’ll just need a bit of a recharge in the prime universe and be right as rain again. No more guesswork about when we can come here. No more waiting five years to see your family. ”

“Our family,” Rose whispered before she pressed her lips to his.

“Our family,” the Doctor agreed.

After a rather brilliant snog that the Doctor was very sad to see end, Rose pulled him by the arm and practically sprinted back up to the house. Watching her tell Jackie, Pete, and Tony the good news made the Doctor’s heart swell. Rose and Jackie quickly made plans for the next few days, most of which involved spas and salons, leaving the gents to their own devices for much of the time. (When Rose said this, Jackie quickly interrupted her, pointed a finger at the Doctor, and said under no uncertain circumstances did “own devices” mean he could attempt to use his sonic or “any other alien gizmo” to attempt to repair, enhance, or modify anything on Tyler property. )

Even with the extra few days, the Doctor was pleased to discover the week seemed to pass quickly rather than it feeling endless and confining as he feared the additional time might. He’d been busy playing footie with Tony and going to Torchwood with Pete to consult on a few gadgets. In the evenings, he insisted on all of them playing a board game or two, and even if Tony rolled his eyes at the suggestion each time, the Doctor saw how happy it made the boy. Plus, he was a damn good Pictionary partner.

When it came time for the inevitable goodbyes, the Doctor said his quickly, stepping back to leave Rose and her mum to all the hugging and crying business. Besides, he’d already cried enough when he showed Rose the good news about the portal. Too many tears were simply unbecoming of a Time Lord...unless, as happened on their next visit just a month later, the Time Lord’s mother-in-law beat them handily at Jenga four times in a row.

***

It was the Doctor’s turn to make the tea this evening, which also gave him some time to contemplate a new Jenga strategy for a rematch with Jackie tomorrow. As he prepared everyone’s cuppas, his mind wandered again to the almost unbelievable luck they’d had with the portal stabilizing. However, he’d finally come to accept that maybe, just maybe, the universe’s random accidents could work in his favor. After all, his life wouldn’t resemble anything like this if he hadn’t stumbled across a girl in the basement of a department store full of autons. His life, which still included danger and, every now and then, the darkest kinds of dark days. But it also included oh-so-much love. Love he never thought he’d have again.

The Tylers’ giggles echoed from the next room. The Doctor picked up the tray of tea and went to join his family.


End file.
